An unsuitable blog for a woman...

June 30, 2010

Retired physicist Gloria Lamerino, 55, and homicide
detective Matt Gennaro, also 55, started flirting in book #1 of the periodic
table mysteries, but being of a certain age and upbringing, that's all they
did.

Sure, Gloria felt a shiver when they had their heads
together looking at crime scene photos, but she'd never let on.

Come book #3, and my editor called me. She liked the book
(whew) but she did want to discuss one point.

"It's about their relationship," she said.
"Gloria and Matt?"

"Yes?"

"Well, Gloria and Matt are adults, right?" she
asked.

"Uh-huh," from me.

"And they're unattached, right?"

Gloria had never been married; Matt had been a widower for
ten years. You can't get much more unattached than that.

"Uh-huh."

"So don't you think they're ready to … uh …?"

"You mean …uh …?"

"Yes, that's what I mean."

"So they should actually …uh …?"

"Yes, I think they should," she said.

"Okay," I said, mopping my brow.

Thus, the love interest between Gloria and Matt was
consummated in "The Lithium Murder."

Not that you get any specifics. But they do get up hastily
from the card table, knocking over the cribbage board, sending the pegs flying,
and … uh … you know.

Of course there are entire genres where there's not a 2-book-long
foreplay and the screen never goes to black. There are scenes with no
"uhs" or question marks.

I'm not sure I could write those scenes. Those of you who do,
any secrets you want to … uh … share?

June 29, 2010

With a prioress and a monk as co-sleuths, just how much love interest could there be?

Lots.

The older I get, the more amazed I am at love’s complex nature. There is first love: great highs, awful lows. Occasionally there is the stuff that was so wacky we wonder what drug we must have been taking at the time, even when we know we weren’t smoking or snorting anything. Some loves are toxic, others uplifting. Some involve sex, but others do not. There is the kind that lasts decades, delightful, supportive, and continuing to surprise, while others destroy the entire family. Most certainly there is no “one size fits all”.

Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas both fall in love, she with him and he with another man. She may have a strong vocation, but she is also a young woman with equally strong passions and a determination to find answers. Thomas is loving, but his desires are not convenient ones for his world and he is made to suffer for them. Instead of giving in, he shakes his fist at God and continues to demand answers, even when God is disinclined to give them. It would have been much easier for the author if these guys had lacked any interest in the vagaries of human passion. Instead, they put up huge roadblocks to any easy answer for them both and told me to deal with it.

But if Thomas and Eleanor give me fits, there are many minor characters in the seven books (working on the eighth) which have been kinder to the scribe. I have had fun with young love, older love, the hopeless stuff, the kind that changes into a form more easily embraced by the character, and more.

And lest you now wonder if I have gone too far in dealing with the love interest, then remember this. In the medieval world, where so many did not survive their third decade, love and its many manifestations was an understandable obsession. (Remember one of the major issues for moderns between puberty and about 40?) If I didn’t write about it, I wouldn’t be true to the era.

June 27, 2010

We LadyKillers are starting a new topic today, and it's a really hot one: The Love Interest.

In my own work, female readers have been enthralled with Faye's best friend and possible (probable? actual?) love interest, Joe Wolf Mantooth. Could this be because he is six-and-a-half feet tall, he has long flowing hair kept tied into a ponytail that extends halfway down his back, and he's a really good cook?

Interestingly, men also really like Joe, in a hunting-and-fishing kind of way. Probably because Joe is the best hunter and fisherman ever born.

Whenever I start a new book, I get nervous emails from people asking, "Will Joe be in this book????"

What? Do I look stupid? If I left Joe out of a book or, worse, if I killed him off, I'd have to go into the Witness Protection Program to escape from enraged readers. Nope. Joe stays. Always.

Joe was originally created to be a completely platonic best friend for Faye. He's nine years younger and, at the time they met, he was barely literate, unemployed, and homeless. Nevertheless, the verdict has been unanimous for seven years now that Joe is the best thing that ever happened to Faye. Who am I to argue?

Now, those of you who are following my other blog It's Like Making Sausage... know that I am in the midst of a month that celebrates writing instruction. I am the co-organizer of the Anhinga Writers' Studio Summer Workshops to be held July 28-31 in Gainesville, Florida, where aspiring writers can learn from a great faculty that includes mystery writers Bob Morris, Claire Matturro, and moi.

To ramp up to this fabulous event, I'm doing a 30-day series called Writing Tips for the Practical Minded atIt's Like Making Sausage..., and here's today's tip:

Love is the primal emotion, and it can drive a story ever higher. But it is a double-edged sword. While you might pause in your own life to admire the beauty of a loved one, or to enjoy a passionate encounter, doing so in a work of fiction can spoil the pacing of your story. If you are deft enough to work other important elements into such scenes--plot-oriented information or character revelations, for example--it will keep your reader from wondering when the story will resume.

In short, keep a love interest in your book, but be sure to keep the love interesting.

June 26, 2010

Last Tuesday my husband made me go to the ER. Turns out my increasing shortness of breath, so bad I couldn't walk ten feet without gasping madly, wasn't due to sedentary ways but to a collection of blood clots in my lungs. When the ER doc looks surprised and said, "these are big clots, and a lot of them," I knew I was in for a sudden change of plans.

Not the lightning bolt of inspiration, but a blast of reality as bright as a neutron bomb. Whatever I did to get me here, I had to stop. Full stop.

I'm writing this in the hospital, hoping that the clarity this little emergency brought will last long after the blood thinners are retired and the oxygen tanks returned to their vendors.

They say for a person to make a profound change in behavior, the id must be motivated (usually pretty easy, we all want peace, clean air and water, good health) and the ego must see a very clear path. Four days in hospital has illuminated the path and motivated the dickens out of me.

Tell me about your shocking moments -- those crystalline bolts that no amount of rationalizing or projection can obscure...

But, guess what: I haven't a clue what to write about this time around. Usually, I mull these themes over and let them percolate and something appears ("pop") out of somewhere deeeeep dowwnnnn in the subconscious for me to hang my hat on.

But not this time.

Part of it is, I'm writing this post a couple weeks ahead of time, and I have one eye on the clock: I've allotted a certain amount of time to get this post done. It's a Sunday morning (8:30 a.m. ... way early for me), and I've got two writing/editing projects for clients I also need to complete today along with myriad errands and "to-dos" of an everyday nature. (AND I must pack and mentally prepare for all my appearances in Oregon starting later this week.)

Okay. No time for inspiration. Still, the words have to be put to the page, one way or the other.

And, I think it's "the other" that is sometimes the stumbling block for beginning writers (hey, even not-so-beginning writers). As anyone who "writes for a living" discovers: it's a job. Like being a plumber (fix that pipe) or a physician (see that patient), it doesn't matter if you are "in the mood" for fixing/physiking/whatever. When you gotta do it, you do it. (Nike's "just do it!" slogan applies to a hecka lot more of life than jogging...)

In this case, to leave you (the reader, or the client, if you will) with some "value added" (vs simply my mumblings and so on), check out this nifty Imagination Prompt Generator. I'm all for random ways to kickstart the imagination, such as this one. (If you have favorite sites that help get you writing, please share! I'd love to hear about them.)

And you know what? If lightning doesn't strike (even with a "lightning rod for the imagination") and the words won't flow, oh well. It happens. You still have to get the job done. That means you're going to have to change the lightbulb or (here comes the metaphor stretch) write words down. One. After. The. Other. And write yourself out of the dark and into the light.

June 23, 2010

By Penny Warner The question I’m asked most when I do book talks, besides “Where’s the restroom?” and “Do you know Sue Grafton?” is “Where do you get your ideas?”

Most authors dread this question because it’s difficult to answer. Many simply say, “At the idea store,” which gets a laugh, but sidesteps the question-—again, because it’s difficult to answer. And yet, without an idea,I have no book to write. That got me thinking--so where DO I get my ideas?

I came up with a list of ways that help get lightning to strike me, especially when I'm searching for an idea for a book, a scene, a character,or a setting. If they don’t work, well, I guess I’ll just stand outside in a thunderstorm with a lightning rod and hope I get lucky.

1. The newspaper. I get a lot of ideas by reading the newspaper for current events. But instead of using something from the headlines, I look for the quirky little stories that make me wonder: “How could that happen?” One of my favorite news items that I used in one of my Connor Westphal mystery series was about a woman who “woke up” on the embalming table! How could that happen? Either you’re dead, or you’re not. There should be no mistaking the difference. But I thought it was a great way to start my story.

2. Other books. When I read a fun or fresh idea in another author’s mystery, I take the idea and see how it might fit with my story. That’s not plagiarism, it’s research. Besides, ideas can’t be copyrighted. And furthermore, my interpretation of the idea will be completely different from the original. For example, I could borrow the idea of a woman bounty hunter—-only she’s a grandmother-—who lives in a small town-—in Texas-—and discovers a body of a man sealed up in a wall-—who turns out to be her ex-husband….

3. Brainstorming. I get together with my brilliant writers group and throw out a question, like “What shall I write next?” Then I let the other writers toss back answers-—basically do the hard work for me-—while I write everything down. Later I sift through the ideas, from “A teenage biker nun with special powers” to “A mystery cookbook where readers have to guess the ingredients.” There’s always a nugget of an idea somewhere in there.

4. Take a shower. Lots of authors get their best ideas in the shower. That’s probably because they can’t write any of them down or they’d get wet. I think it’s the psychology of it. When I sit down and try to come up with an idea, I end up with a grocery list—-literally. But without a pen handy, I create some of my best work. I just wish I could remember it.

5. Borrow from Shakespeare or mythology. Those stories are timeless, and cover all the basic elements of good storytelling. Or, if you’re really stuck, try the Three Little Pigs.

a. Good Pig is happyb. Bad Wolf comes alongc. Good Pig is in jeopardyd. Good Pig gets in more jeopardy.e. Things look really bleak for Good Pigf. Pig solves his problem.g. Wolf is conquered and Pig saves his own life and the lives of others.h. Good Pig is happy again.

6. If lightning still won’t strike, remember the words of Robert B. Parker, who once said something like: “…there’s no such thing as writer’s block. Writing is hard, but if it’s your job, you do it. You wouldn’t accept it if you called a plumber and he said he couldn’t come out that day because he had plumber’s block…”

Well, let's see, there's all types of lightening. Mostly I interpret "Lightening Strikes" as inspiration, but today I thought differently. It's the debut of a fellow Ladykiller, Susan Shea, and I thought lightening might strike me if I failed to mention it!

Please welcome the first edition of the Danielle O'Rourke's series onto your bookshelves!

It's Murder in the Abstract where Dani's
gala evening at the Devor Museum ends in catastrophe
when the body of a young artist plummets from her office window. The
police label it murder and suspect Dani, the Museum’s chief fundraiser.
Self-preservation and an insider's understanding of how money moves the
art world drive her to investigate who might have a motive for murder.
Dani's playboy ex-husband and a green-eyed cop complicate matters as her
search moves through the fashionable worlds of San Francisco and Santa
Fe.

June 22, 2010

Susan C. Shea's has a launch party for MURDER IN THE ABSTRACT! June 25, Friday evening, 7 PM, Great Good Place for Books, Montclair, CA, with Camille Minichino also participating.

You can also catch Susan and her new book June 23, Wednesday at Janet Rudolph's literary salon in Berekeley, CA, or June 26, Saturday for the official launch at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA, with reading, signing, and cupcakes (4 PM).

Or, it doesn’t. For example, I’ve been sitting at the
computer for 30 minutes without a flicker. No rumbling thunder in the far
distance, even.

Writing is such a strange occupation, and fiction writing
the hardest. At least with non-fiction, you get and idea and, boom, you’re off.
Ten Ways to Land the Best Job. The title
alone gives you a clear, quantifiable goal. I mean, if you weren’t sure of at
least five, you wouldn’t start, would you? So you blaze away with those five,
talk to a dozen people in the business of recruitment, and there you are. At
least ten, right?

Or, Everything You Need to Know About Taking Care of
Roses. That’s really just gathering what
everyone else has written and putting it into a cute new format, like large type
on different colored pages, with lots of beautiful pictures. Maybe
scratch-and-sniff? There’s nothing new to be said about fending off black spot
and rust, and your market’s right there, rose lovers who can’t get enough
pictures of roses, preferably new hybrids.

But fiction? A Story about a Woman Who Wants to be Rich
and Kills Someone to Get Her Wish.Just dive in anywhere:What kind of woman? Why? How rich?
Kills who? Why him? What is her wish, anyway? Does it work? Why not?

More often than not, I find lightning doesn’t so much strike
as sneak its charge into a thought, a conversation, something I’m reading in
the paper, my reaction to a loved one’s tale of a bad day at the office. It’s a
little buzzing sound that catches my attention, and it usually sounds like
“What if?”

“He said that to you? How dare he?” What if I kill him
in my next book?

“I haven’t seen Nancy in three days.” What if that
obnoxious ex-husband of hers carried out his threat to come back for the dog
and she tried to stop him?”

That may lead to a florid imagining or a few sentences of
dialogue. It may remind me of something else I read, or a funny story about a
friend’s over-active imagination, when she almost bashed an innocent delivery
person over the head with a baseball bat, or how much money a Picasso with a
sketchy provenance just sold for. Hardly lightning, but lots of little sparks that may or may
not fuse (is that a pun?) into a story that holds together for 275 pages after
a year of hard work.

My fellow Lady Killers may have more exciting and inspiring
comments on the theme. But then, most of them are so far ahead of me
professionally that I’m in awe of their accomplishments already. If they say
they get big, fat bolts of inspiration in a single blast, I’ll only be more
impressed.

June 21, 2010

I like basing my fiction on real events, but headline stories rarely inspire me.They're too public.Too visible.The public is keenly aware of them and by the time they make it into fiction they're blasé.I’m always mining for stories featuring life’s oddities that fly so low under the radar we miss them.The unusual business of buying and selling other people’s life insurance policies was the inspiration for ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN.The suicides of three coworkers sparked WE ALL FALL DOWN.

The odd and obscure play a part in my latest book, TERMINATED, which focuses on workplace violence.In the USA, twenty people will die this week at their place of work at the hands of a violent act.That’s right—twenty people.Some will die as the result of a killer entering a place of work while the others will fall prey to a violent coworker.Either way, that’s a scary statistic.I’m quite glad I work from home where the greatest threat to me is a green cheese sandwich at the back of the fridge that I’ve been too afraid to dispose of.

That statistic wasn’t the inspiration for the book.Instead, the precautions some firms are taking to combat workplace violence is what grabbed my attention.Some firms are employing private security companies to investigate, avert and defuse threats from violent employees.The reason for this is simple—the cost.When you tot up the cost of lawsuits, rehiring, loss of productivity, not to mention the harm done to employees, private security firms are quite a cost effective solution to a potentially dangerous outcome.I couldn’t ignore this wild situation.It had novel written all over it.

And because I’m a devious little so and so, I wasn’t interested in exploring how industry is involving private security firms in their daily affairs (and it has nothing to do with no one willing to talk to me about it). I’m sure I could make a fun story about private security operatives going all out to protect a threatened employee.No, I was more interested in how the best-laid plans can be meant to protect us, but at the end of the day, the only person who can save us is ourselves.

So in TERMINATED, Gwen is the rising star at her firm, but her employee, Stephen Tarbell resents her success along with everything else others achieve in this world.What makes Gwen the focus of Tarbell’s ire is a poor rating on his performance evaluation.The systems in place to protect Gwen fail, forcing her to take matters into her own hands.While this might seem like a minor thing to take umbrage over, it’s not.My research into workplace violence uncovered amazing motives why some coworkers have come to blows.All I can say is watch what you say to the person in the next cubicle.Think about that when you send a snotty email to the guy that snatched your tuna on rye from the staff lunchroom.

So TERMINATEDis in the bag and I’m in search of another quirky news story for my next book—and I think I’ve found one.What would you do to keep a wayward spouse in line—and how much would you pay?